Dad here. I love putting my kid to bed. For nearly a year she only wanted mommy to do it. But she asks for me mostly now, and I’ve been soaking it up. I love reading books. I love singing her to sleep. I love the little tired conversations.

I don’t love all the attempts to delay bedtime… but we’ve got a decent routine that’s taken most of the fights out of it.

I just wanted to share while I’m still feeling the glow of a successful putdown.

I hope y’all feel that joy when you can. Stay safe out there.

  • jrubal1462@mander.xyz
    14·
    3 days ago

    Yeah it is amazing. My wife breastfed both of our kids unti they werel about 2 years old. I can help with bath and story time, but it means I miss the absolute best cuddles. There are a lot of advantages to not being tethered to the child, especially when bedtime isn’t going smoothly, but I’d give it all up for those sweet sweet cuddles.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      3 days ago

      Unfortunately my ex couldn’t breastfeed. It was just too painful for her. So she would pump and/or we would use formula. I would give her breaks by putting the kids to bed so she could have time to herself to decompress. Every night I would fall asleep with them in my arms. Best freaking memories I have are sleeping with my kids when they were young.

  • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    3 days ago

    Oh man, it’s the best feeling in the world when your kid picks you.

    My kids are 10 and 12, and we still have a bedtime routine where I lay with them for a few minutes (sometimes we chat about nothing and everything). My 12 yo has anxiety that manifests as fear of the dark, so I spend a little extra time with him. He seems mostly over it now; sometimes he’ll tell me he doesn’t want me to lay with him (I can’t help but feel pride when he does, because I know that means he’s not scared to be alone).

    Anyway, all of that to say that it’s the best feeling in the world, and I hope you have many more years with your daughter at bedtime to hang out and bond.

  • liyah27@lemmy.world
    5·
    2 days ago

    Mom here, my 12 year old son still loves when I put him to bed. It feels so good my kid asks for cuddles or affection too. 😊

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 days ago

    Fantastic! I do sometimes miss it, but I miss a lot about their childhood.

    Is it allowed to say something good about Reddit? Long after my kids grew out of wanting to be read to at bedtime, we would take turns reading and discussing r/aita as something both enjoyable and discovering wisdom in complex social interactions. I miss that too, but my kids are in college now so even if we were still on Reddit that would no longer be happening

  • Nomecks@lemmy.ca
    8·
    3 days ago

    My son is nearing the age where he won’t want to fall asleep with us anymore. Savour it while it lasts, you don’t get a lot of years to do it.

    • cubism_pitta@lemmy.world
      18·
      3 days ago

      READ TO YOUR KIDS!!! I read to my 3 younger girls, the oldest is 11 (the rest are all school age)

      We have kept bed time routine in tact (during the school year)

      Its an opportunity to just hangout, most nights we read but some nights we run down a YouTube rabbit hole. Or the girls just fall asleep talking to me about whatever is on their minds.

      We have read since 2021

      Most of the Harry Potter books

      The Hunger Games

      Freak The Mighty

      Max The Mighty

      The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

      The Martian

      The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

      Holes

      Small Steps

      Maniac Magee

      Hoot

      Dory Fantasmagory

      Hail Mary

      Space Cat

      The Fighting Ground

      and some others I know I am missing.

      Some of my picks are obviously not kid’s books but I had a thing where as my younger kids fell asleep I would read whatever I was reading or was cool to me out loud to the remaining kids and they really loved some of them.

      That has shifted a bit and I now keep a few books in rotation.

      to all the kids I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. when my youngest falls asleep then I pick up Kiki’s Delivery Service when the next oldest kid falls asleep its time for The Hunger Games

      It’s a bit selfish but I found that I can keep my momentum going with the routine myself by ensuring I read things that are interesting to me. I also get the kids more excited by being genuinely excited myself to read.

      Its quite amazing to feel strong emotions about the books with my girls and everyone should try to experience that in my opinion.

      I also typically read a book exactly as written. Except in the case of The Martian. My kids preferred that I read that with a silly soundboard to lessen the language (at their request).